IMWAYR July 15, 2024

Welcome! It's #IMWAYR time again, when bloggers share what they have been reading and find out what others have been up to. Kathryn hosts the adult version of this meme at Book Date. Kellee and Ricki at Unleashing Readers host the kidlit rendition. These are fabulous places to start your search for what to read next.

I worked hard on a paper pieced unicorn quilt last week. I am determined to have it finished before the end of the month. I've had the pattern and most of the fabric for over a year. I started on it last spring but other projects got in the way. I need to get it completed before my granddaughter decides that she doesn't like unicorns anymore. 

The pile on the left are finished. I am almost finished the ones in the middle - just need to add the blue background fabric. I have yet to start the pile on the right.

In the process of that, (and weeding in the garden) I listened to a lot of audiobooks. 

At the same time as I was working on my projects, I travelled across time and space, made new literary friends, and came to understand the world and its denizens in new ways. I'm so thankful to be a reader. 

Titles with a 🍁 indicate this is a Canadian or Indigenous Canadian Author and or Illustrator.

Clicking on the title will take you to the Goodreads page of the book.

PICTURE BOOKS

4 stars

Perla The Mighty Dog by Isabel Allende & Sandy Rodriguez (Illustrator) May 28, 2024

Everyone needs a Perla in their life. Perla's super powers include making people love her and barking really loudly. Her boy, Nico Rico, is being bullied at school. Perla teaches him how to deal with his bully. 

I'm not really a dog person, but I fell in love with Perla. 

4 stars

Métis Like Me by Tasha Hilderman & Risa Hugo (Illustrator) April 2, 2024 🍁

What does it mean to be Métis? I'm not sure there is an American equivalent. The Métis here in Canada are a group of Indigenous people whose ancestors originate with the union of European men and Indigenous women. They have their unique history, culture, and even language. 

This book introduces us to a number of Métis children who tell us about their lives. Some of them are aware of their heritage, while others know next to nothing. No matter what, they are all Métis.

MG FICTION

5 stars

Tree. Table. Book. by Lois Lowry & Hope Newhouse (Narrator) April 1, 2024

The two Sophies are best friends. Sophie Winslow is in elementary school while Sophie Gershowitz is 88. The elder Sophie is having memory trouble these days and her son is planning on moving her to a home near him. The younger Sophie is heartbroken. She comes up with a plan to test Sophie G. to show that she is competent. In the process we learn about her earlier life. 

Like all Lois Lowry novels, this one is full of brilliant characters aside from the main ones. The younger Sophie's other friends, Ralphie and Oliver are equally memorable. 

I loved this book. I'm sure that even if I wasn't already sucker for intergenerational relationships, I would have loved it. 

I was also terrified for Sophie Gershowitz. I'm now of age to have visited people living in the best kinds of care homes. Warehousing is not an ending I want for myself or anyone else I love. This book was a reminder to me of how imminent and important it is to find a better way. 

ADULT/YA FICTION

5 stars

The Covenant of Water by Abraham Verghese (Author and Narrator) May 2, 2023

All the hype about this book is well deserved. I don't usually read family sagas but I was sucked into this from the first few pages.

It's filled with characters I took into my heart. I feel like I travelled back in time and made new friends. There are a couple of what seem at first to be disparate story lines. 

It begins with Mariamma, a 12 year old girl grieving the loss of her father, being married to a 40 year old man. I came to love this couple and all the other people who come into their lives in the next three generations. 

The other story lines are of different doctors. Dr. Rune Orquist ends up devoting his life to caring for leprosy patients. Digby Kilgour is a Scottish doctor who joined the Indian Medical Services. 

The lives of the different people intersect across time and come to a satisfying and heart wrenching conclusion at the end of the novel.

5 + stars

The Heaven & Earth Grocery Store by James McBride & Dominic Hoffman (Narrator) August 8th 2023

The best thing about historical fiction, is how much we can learn about times and places we previously knew next to nothing about. This is set in a small town near Philadelphia.

It begins in 1972 with the discovery of a skeleton and a mezuzah.  Then it takes us back to the 1930's. A Jewish immigrant, Moshe, meets and marries a young woman, Chona, whose father owns a grocery store in Chicken Hill, a Black, Jewish, and immigrant neighbourhood. When the rest of the Jewish community moves, they stay. Chona has become one of my favourite female protagonists, but all the women in this novel are remarkable: Addie Timblin, who helps out in the store; Patty Millison, AKA Paper, who knows all the news, and figures out how to get the kind of help they need to rescue Dodo, the young deaf boy trapped in Pennhurst, an insane asylum; and Miggy Fludd who works at Pennhurst. 

We discover eventually who the skeleton was and how it and the mezuzah ended up in the bottom of a well. It feels like justice, however erroneously, was meted out. 

This is a book about friendship, resilience, love and overcoming. I didn't want the book to end so I started it all over again. I've decided to read everything by James McBride that I can get my hands on. 

4.5 stars

After Annie by Anna Quindlen & Gilli Messer (Narrator) February 27, 2024

I don't generally like books where the mother dies, but this one was different. It focuses on on what her loss means to people close to her for the year after her death. It's told from three points of view, Ali, her daughter, her husband, Bill, and her best friend Annemarie.  Through them we see how the rest of the family is coping - or not coping. While there is grief, there's also growth as they all, especially Bill, have to take on the roles she once managed. 

In spite of the fact that nothing really happens, it's not an easy book to read. Ali discovers that her best friend, Jenny, is being abused by her father. Annemarie sinks back into addiction. 

I really appreciated how important therapy was for the children and Bill. 

I loved that all these people felt real - like the kind of family who might live on the same block as me. 

5 stars

The Warm Hands of Ghosts by Katherine Arden, (Author and Narrator) and January Lavoy & Michael Crouch (Narrators) February 13, 2024

This fascinating story is told from the perspectives of two siblings caught up in the horror of WW1.

Laura Iven was a front line nurse until she was injured when her hospital was bombed and sent home. Shortly after arriving back in Halifax, two ships collided in the harbour. The ensuing explosion wiped out huge sections of the city and killed her mother and father. When she finds out that her brother, Freddie, has died she returns to Begium working in a private hospital to find what happened. 

Freddie almost died when he was trapped in an overturned pillbox with Hans Winter, a wounded German soldier. In the process of keeping each other alive and sane, the two of them bond. They manage to escape and go searching for Laura so that she can help Hans who was badly injured. Along the way they meet up with a mysterious man who can bring solace in the midst of all the terror. 

I became a Katherine Arden fan from reading The Bear and the Nightingale Trilogy. I ended up liking this book even more. I adored all these characters. I liked that while there is a bit of romance, it's a very small bit of the over all story. There is a plot twist near the end that took me completely by surprise!

CURRENTLY 

Betty: The Helen Betty Osborne Story by David Alexander Robertson & Scott B. Henderson (Illustrator) April 27, 2015 🍁

Woke Up Like This by Amy Lea, Mindy Kaling (Introduction) September 5, 2023 🍁

UP NEXT (MAYBE)

A Crane Among Wolves by June Hur May 14, 2024 🍁

READING GOALS 

#MustRead2024 13/25 

NonFiction 20/24

Canadian Authors 38/50 two on the go

Indigenous Authors 18/25 one on the go

Goodreads Reading Challenge: 128/200